Bluewater Gear

A 10-year circumnavigation gets stretched

Dave and Sherry McCamp-bell voyage aboard their St. Francis 44 catamaran, Soggy Paws. They planned on a 10-year circumnavigation, but it has already stretched to 13 years and they admit it might be 20 before they’re done.

Dave is a Naval Academy graduate and spent most of his time in the Navy as a diving and salvage officer. He commanded the rescue salvage ship Bolster. He has owned eight sailboats, including the 1929 Alden yawl Cynara, a Catalina 36, Tartan 30, Ranger 26, Piver 35 trimaran and a Hobie 16. He previously cruised with Sherry aboard a CSY 44. Dave holds a USCG 100-ton master’s license and spent six years in the charter industry with the Florida Sea Base sailing program in the Keys. He is a retired PADI and YMCA scuba instructor. He holds an extra amateur radio license (KE4BKF). He has been a member of SSCA since 1994 and a Commodore since 2000.

Sherry earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and an MBA in computer management. She restored a Lindenberg 28 racing sailboat and raced for five years in the Melbourne, Fla., area. From 2004 to 2006, she and her women’s crew won both the spring and fall ECSA Women’s Series in the Spinnaker/ Racing class. She has earned her USCG six-pack captain’s license, her 50-ton master’s license and a PADI Rescue Diver rating.

Sherry is an SSCA Commodore, semi-active member of the Waterway Net (extra-class call sign KN4TH), former board member and women’s racing chairman for the East Coast Sailing Association, and former fleet captain and newsletter editor for Melbourne Yacht Club.

OV: What prompted you to go voyaging?